Indian Country Today Media Network.com - Tom Poor Bearhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tags/tom-poor-bear
enOglala Lakota Tribe Elects Scott Weston New Chairmanhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/11/30/oglala-lakota-tribe-elects-scott-weston-new-chairman-166616
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>When final Oglala Lakota tribal election results, including all resolved challenge votes, were announced Wednesday morning, Scott Weston’s tally of 2,721 votes to incumbent John Yellow Bird</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 30 Nov 2016 16:27:36 +0000kpolisse166616 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/11/30/oglala-lakota-tribe-elects-scott-weston-new-chairman-166616#commentsNative Americans Still Fighting for Voting Equalityhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/08/26/native-americans-still-fighting-voting-equality-165593
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Terry Whitehat remembers gathering at the community hall in Navajo Mountain each election day, where Navajo Nation members in this remote Utah community would cast their ballots.</p>
<p>The tribal members would catch up with friends and family and eat food under the cottonwood trees in the parking lot.</p>
<p>So when Whitehat, a social worker who has lived most of his life on the reservation, received a ballot in the mail for the 2014 elections, he said it caught him off guard.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<div class="media-youtube-video file media-element file-media-original media-youtube-1">
<iframe class="media-youtube-player" width="640" height="390" title="Native Americans confront voting challenges | Cronkite News" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3PQ_yfwxNB8?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="">Video of Native Americans confront voting challenges | Cronkite News</iframe></div>
<p>The county began conducting elections by mail in 2014. Members of the Navajo Nation who live in the area could no longer physically vote in the village. If they wanted to vote in person, they would have to drive to the only remaining polling place at the county seat in Monticello, a 400-mile round trip from Navajo Mountain.</p>
<p>Whitehat and a half-dozen other Navajo community members, along with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, sued the county. They claimed the move to a mail-only election disenfranchised Native Americans, especially those who don’t read or speak English and had limited access to mail. They said it also violated the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/history-federal-voting-rights-laws" target="_blank">Voting Rights Act</a> and the 14th Amendment.</p>
<p>Across the country, other tribal members have filed similar suits alleging that state laws and county election practices intentionally make it harder to vote on reservations. Local jurisdictions don’t always provide translators or polling locations on reservations, and tougher state voter identification laws have created problems for those who don’t have birth certificates or only have tribal ID.</p>
<p>“Native Americans have been the victim of the political process since the creation of the United States,” said OJ Semans, a retired police officer turned Native American voting rights crusader in South Dakota. “What we need to do is organize in order to protect what our ancestors passed on to us.”</p>
<p>“But it’s hard to do when everything you’re trying to have your people participate in, they put stumbling blocks,” Semans added.</p>
<p>Despite gaining the rights to citizenship and voting in <a href="http://www.archives.gov/global-pages/larger-image.html?i=/historical-docs/doc-content/images/indian-citizenship-act-1924-l.jpg&amp;c=/historical-docs/doc-content/images/indian-citizenship-act-1924.caption.html" target="_blank">1924</a> from the federal government, Native Americans in some states could not vote until 1962. Those who live on reservations have consistently dealt with distances and language barriers when it comes to voting. But experts who have studied Native American voting rights said recent changes to legal requirements and provisions for voting have exacerbated those problems.</p>
<p>After the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf" target="_blank">rejected a key provision</a> of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, states and jurisdictions with histories of discrimination no longer needed to obtain clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before making changes to the voting process.</p>
<p>The provision had covered Alaska and Arizona, two states with high Native American populations, as well as two reservations in South Dakota. Since the ruling, attorneys have filed lawsuits over voting changes affecting Native Americans in all three states.</p>
<p>RELATED: <a href="https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/10/14/historic-voting-rights-win-alaska-162026" target="_self">Historic Voting-Rights Win in Alaska</a></p>
<p>Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, director of the Indian Legal Clinic at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, has worked on voting rights litigation with Native American nations and advocacy groups for years. She said policymakers simply don’t consider how conditions in some Native American communities pose barriers to voting that wouldn’t cause problems in cities or towns with basic services.</p>
<p>“They don’t understand,” she told News21. “They just think everybody can just walk out to the mailbox, or make a telephone call, but life isn’t like that in a lot of places in Indian country.”</p>
<p><strong>Increasing influence</strong></p>
<p>Native Americans have historically had some of the lowest turnout rates of any ethnic group in the country, according to several studies examining voter participation.</p>
<p>However, two recent studies by researchers at the University of Wyoming and the University of New Mexico indicated that voting among Native Americans has increased. The University of New Mexico study used U.S. Census Bureau data and found that in the 2008 general election, Native Americans were nearly 30 percent less likely to vote than non-Hispanic whites. However, in 2010 and 2012, there was virtually no difference between the two groups.</p>
<p>Researchers have attributed the change to various factors, including increases in educational attainment and higher incomes. The dynamic between Native American nations and government entities – from the local to federal levels – has shifted over time as Native American communities became more involved in issues such as the use of natural resources and gambling.</p>
<p>Jacqueline Pata, the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, said Native Americans see the direct effects of federal policy on their lives. “That’s what pulls people to the polls for us,” Pata said. “Whether it be about Indian health care, or whether it be about the recognition of tribes and inclusion of tribes as governments.”</p>
<p></div></div></div>Fri, 26 Aug 2016 17:00:00 +0000kpolisse165593 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/08/26/native-americans-still-fighting-voting-equality-165593#commentsSouth Dakota’s Last Stand—Ballot Boxes, Red Herrings and Custer Envyhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/20/south-dakotas-last-stand-ballot-boxes-red-herrings-and-custer-envy-160423
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Jackson County, South Dakota, has dug in for a fight against Oglala Sioux plaintiffs who sued for a full-service satellite voting office on the portion of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 20 May 2015 18:00:00 +0000kpolisse160423 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/20/south-dakotas-last-stand-ballot-boxes-red-herrings-and-custer-envy-160423#commentsPoor Bear Wins A Round: Oglala Voting Suit Advanceshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/12/poor-bear-wins-round-oglala-voting-suit-advances-160330
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>A federal judge has shredded claim after claim by a South Dakota county that overlaps the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation but will not guarantee tribal members on-reservation voter registrati</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 12 May 2015 16:00:00 +0000kpolisse160330 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/12/poor-bear-wins-round-oglala-voting-suit-advances-160330#commentsNative Voting Plaintiffs Got It Right, Says DOJhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/01/12/native-voting-plaintiffs-got-it-right-says-doj-158658
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The U.S. Department of Justice has submitted a Statement of Interest in the federal voting-rights lawsuit, <em>Poor Bear v.</em></p></div></div></div>Mon, 12 Jan 2015 15:00:00 +0000kpolisse158658 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/01/12/native-voting-plaintiffs-got-it-right-says-doj-158658#commentsSurprise 11th-Hour Native-Vote Agreementshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/10/18/surprise-11th-hour-native-vote-agreements-157409
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>This week, two more South Dakota counties have agreed to provide Indian-reservation polling places during the state’s pre-election early-voting period.</p></div></div></div>Sat, 18 Oct 2014 16:00:00 +0000kpolisse157409 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/10/18/surprise-11th-hour-native-vote-agreements-157409#commentsOglala VP: ‘Our Civil Rights Are Being Violated’http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/25/oglala-vp-our-civil-rights-are-being-violated-157048
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The Oglala Sioux Nation and a nonpartisan civil rights group formed at the request of President John Kennedy have filed a voting-rights lawsuit on behalf of voters from the tribe’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.</p></div></div></div>Thu, 25 Sep 2014 16:00:00 +0000kpolisse157048 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/25/oglala-vp-our-civil-rights-are-being-violated-157048#commentsCliff Matias at the ‘Bring Leonard Peltier Home 2012’ Event in NYChttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/19/cliff-matias-bring-leonard-peltier-home-2012-event-nyc-146399
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><i><em>Some of music and Hollywood’s most outspoken advocates for peace and justice assembled at the Beacon Theater in New York City on December 14 for a special event. They gathered with the same common goal: To free Leonard Peltier.</em></i></p></div></div></div>Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000speregoy146399 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/19/cliff-matias-bring-leonard-peltier-home-2012-event-nyc-146399#commentsCelebrity Activists Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Common and Michael Moore Come Together for Leonard Peltierhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/18/celebrity-activists-harry-belafonte-pete-seeger-common-and-michael-moore-come-together
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>By 7:30 p.m. on Friday night, the sidewalk outside the Beacon Theatre in New York City was swarming with Indians and hippies and hipsters and scalpers.</p></div></div></div>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:45:00 +0000jrobertson146395 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/18/celebrity-activists-harry-belafonte-pete-seeger-common-and-michael-moore-come-together#commentsKeystone XL Pipeline Faces Tribal Opposition Ahead of First Presidential Debatehttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/10/03/keystone-xl-pipeline-faces-tribal-opposition-ahead-first-presidential-debate-137465
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The $7 billion Keystone XL Pipeline raised its controversial head on the eve of the first presidential debate, signaling that contenders President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may be challenged to abandon the proj</p></div></div></div>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 23:30:40 +0000kpolisse137465 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/10/03/keystone-xl-pipeline-faces-tribal-opposition-ahead-first-presidential-debate-137465#comments